Hermana Garner - Now a Texan!: 6/13/16

hello family and friends!

im lovin the summer but it is definitely a hot one down here in Houston! my skin is a new color!! I finally look Hispanic. #goals

we started off this week with a Family Night with one of our new investigators, Melvin and his cute little family. We talked a lot about families and the importance of teaching our kids the gospel so they grow up with good principles. it went super well and he seemed really interested and he wanted to learn more. the members (their family) helped a lot and we had some yummy mexican nachos after to celebrate.

a pretty interesting story: so we got this call one night from someone in Nevada, giving us the number and address of her friend who lives in the Elders area. she is a mom from Venezuela (her name is Marlin) and she is having a really hard time. she feels really alone and where she is living isnt a very good environment. her friend said that she had been to church a couple times and she really liked it. so we called and went over to her house with Favio and she asked us if we could go somewhere else to talk because she didnt feel comfortable where she lived. so we went to this beautiful park right on the shore! we sat at a picnic table and she just broke down in front of us. it was so sad to see. she said she just left her husband and 4 kids and is trying to get a job here to support her family. Favio ended up having an opening at his work for a women so he will give the info to his boss (members bring blessings). I bore my strong testimony on how God has a plan for all of us and that Jesus Christ knows exactly what she is feeling. she said after, that she felt better. we invited her to church but she said she had something else going on..dang it! please keep her and her family in your prayers!

Friday we had zone conference with a General Authority who came to visit! I learned 1734937 things. it was soooo good. One of the biggest things that I am applying is what President Hall taught us. He talked about the scripture "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" and how we need to master the little things everyday in order to see results. it really helped me because as a trainer, I am always worried about 3280 things in my mind and it can be overwhelming a lot. but hearing this, it made me feel better that I just need to work on my small and simple things that I can change and that will bring the results I want. President Hall is such an inspired man! Also President Foster (general authority) talked about a lot of things but the one thing that hit me was that Heavenly Father knows me by name. He talked about the chapters in Moses and how the universe is just HUGE, there are so many different galaxies and stars that go on and on, how the Earth is a beautiful creation for US. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ made it for US. so that we can experience hard things and grow and learn from them. but with everything that exists in the universe, He knows us so individually. I feel that everyday of my mission.

On Saturday, we took our bikes and explored Tiki Island again! we took Jorge, our new favorite member that is preparing on going on a mission. We got there and his chain broke and Hermana Hughes' seat on her bike broke. We got like an hour in and then we had to go because we didnt have bike transportation anymore....haha. but it was fun! we are planning on going again soon. also that night we had a Father's Day Party. Nico came with his wife and her mom (who are both less-active!) YAY! I always love when all of the people I love in Kemah, dance and enjoy their time together. I love our branch parties, they make me so happy and so jealous that I'm not hispanic. hahahaha. also at the party, I met someone from Nicaragua! so cool!

all in all, this week was a stressful one. most of our set appointments fell through. we had one day where we had 5 appointments in a row and they all fell through. it was so discouraging. that happened like 4 times this week. it was hard to be positive and we had a pretty hard time. but yesterday, we went to go drop off cookies to a family in the rain. we werent in the best mood and we didnt really want to do anything. we had no motivation. but we walked up to the door and they invited us inside. they are the Campo family from Colombia ( I talked about them a couple weeks ago) and we went in and sat down and started talking. Paola Campo is the most beautiful person ever and she has the strongest testimony. she is also a flight attendant which makes her 42 times cooler. she was telling us about how she is going to Peru and France this week...such a cool job. but we ended up talking to her for a long time about a lot of different things and she asked us if we liked crepes. we said yes and she said "lets make some right now!" so on this rainy day, we are flipping crepes together with the cutest Colombian family. it felt like I was at home, I just felt so much love for them and from them. after we left their house, Hermana Hughes and I were just so grateful for them. Having that at the end of our week was exactly what we needed and exactly how we needed to feel about ourselves.

With all of the hard things this week, we reached so many of our goals and even got higher than some of them! I met someone from Bolivia at a meal appointment, someone at the party from Nicaragua, our new investigator is from Venezuela, our new favorite crepe/making-people-feel-loved family is from Colombia, our new future missionary member who goes with us everywhere is from Honduras and everyone else in between! one of the things that I LOVE about the gospel is that it is worldwide. It isnt just one church here in League City, Texas. It is all around the world because God loves all of his children! allllllll around the world. it is such a cool experience to meet people from these places, hear their different accents, but to hear testimonies about the same gospel and Son of God, Jesus Christ. I want to travel to all of these places after my mission when I'm a millionaire someday....haha. what a dream that would be.

I love my branch, I love this area and I love being with the Hispanic culture everyday. I just really do love them a lot.

read Romans 8 this week-it is incredible.

Hermana Garner